India Arie | |
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India Arie at the Singapore Winehouse Festival in 2011
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Born |
India Arie Simpson October 3, 1975 Denver, Colorado, United States |
Other names | India.Arie |
Alma mater | Savannah College of Art and Design |
Occupation |
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Years active | 1999–present |
Parent(s) |
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Website | indiaarie |
Musical career | |
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India Arie (sometimes styled as india.arie, born India Arie Simpson, October 3, 1975) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, musician, and record producer. She has sold over 3.3 million records in the US and 10 million worldwide. She has won four Grammy Awards from her 21 nominations, including Best R&B Album.
She was born in Denver, Colorado, the daughter of Joyce and Ralph Simpson. Her musical skills were encouraged by both parents in her younger years. Her mother is a former singer (she was signed to Motown as a teenager and opened for Stevie Wonder and Al Green) and is now her stylist. Her father is a former NBA basketball player. She has an older brother named J'On. According to a DNA analysis, she descends from the Mende people of Sierra Leone, the Kru people of Liberia and the Fula people of Guinea-Bissau.
After her parents divorced, Simpson's mother moved the family to Atlanta, Georgia when she was thirteen. Simpson had taken up a succession of musical instruments throughout her schooling in Denver, but her interest in the guitar while attending the Savannah College of Art and Design, in Savannah, led to a personal revelation about songwriting and performing. "When I started tapping into my own sensitivity, I started to understand people better. It was a direct result of writing songs", she said at the press release of her debut album, Acoustic Soul.